Edinburgh South West (UK Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh South West is a Scottish constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), first used in the 2005 general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is currently represented by Joanna Cherry of the SNP since 2015.

Edinburgh South West
Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Edinburgh South West in Scotland
Subdivisions of Scotland	City of Edinburgh
Major settlements	Wester Hailes, Bonaly, Balerno, Gorgie
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of Parliament	Joanna Cherry (SNP)
Created from	Edinburgh Pentlands and Edinburgh Central

Boundaries

Edinburgh South West is one of five constituencies covering the City of Edinburgh council area. All are entirely within the city council area.

Prior to the 2005 general election, the city area had been covered by six constituencies and, of the six, there was one, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, which straddled the boundary with the East Lothian council area, to include Musselburgh.

Edinburgh South West is mostly a replacement for the former Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, but excludes some of the east of that constituency. Also, it includes a south western portion of the former Edinburgh Central constituency.[1] The Scottish Parliament uses different boundaries. Edinburgh South West is mostly contained within the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency for elections to the Scottish Parliament, with some parts of the north and east of the seat being located in the constituencies of Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.

Edinburgh South West covers a south western portion of the city area. It has an urban north east and a suburban centre. The remainder is rural, and runs into the Pentland Hills in the south. The constituency comprises the following wards of the City of Edinburgh Council which were used in elections to the council at the time of the constituency's first contest in 2005: Balerno, Baberton, Colinton, Craiglockhart, Dalry, Firrhill, Fountainbridge, Moat, Murrayburn, Parkhead, Shandon and Sighthill. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, these wards were replaced with new wards in 2007. Current ward boundaries are not aligned with the constituency boundaries.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2005	Alistair Darling	Labour
	2015	Joanna Cherry	SNP

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

2019 general election: Edinburgh South West[2][3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Joanna Cherry	24,830	47.6	12.0
	Conservative	Callum Laidlaw	12,848	24.6	8.8
	Labour	Sophie Cooke	7,478	14.3	12.5
	Liberal Democrats	Tom Inglis	4,971	9.5	5.2
	Scottish Green	Ben Parker	1,265	2.4	New
	Brexit Party	David Ballantine	625	1.2	New
	SDP	Mev Brown	114	0.2	New
Majority			11,982	23.0	20.8
Turnout			52,112	70.9	1.5
	SNP hold		Swing	10.4

2017 general election: Edinburgh South West[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Joanna Cherry	17,575	35.6	7.4
	Conservative	Miles Briggs	16,478	33.4	13.2
	Labour	Foysol Choudhury	13,213	26.8	0.4
	Liberal Democrats	Aisha Mir	2,124	4.3	0.6
Majority			1,097	2.2	13.6
Turnout			49,390	69.4	2.1
	SNP hold		Swing	10.2

2015 general election: Edinburgh South West[5][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Joanna Cherry[7]	22,168	43.0	30.8
	Labour	Ricky Henderson[8]	14,033	27.2	15.6
	Conservative	Gordon Lindhurst[9]	10,444	20.2	4.1
	Scottish Green	Richard Doherty[10]	1,965	3.8	1.9
	Liberal Democrats	Daniel Farthing-Sykes[11]	1,920	3.7	14.3
	UKIP	Richard Lucas[12]	1,072	2.1	New
Majority			8,135	15.8	N/A
Turnout			51,602	71.5	3.0
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	23.2

2010 general election: Edinburgh South West[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alistair Darling	19,473	42.8	3.0
	Conservative	Jason Rust	11,026	24.3	1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Tim McKay	8,194	18.0	3.1
	SNP	Kaukab Stewart	5,530	12.2	1.6
	Scottish Green	Clare Cooney	872	1.9	1.6
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox	319	0.7	0.6
	Communist League	Caroline Bellamy	48	0.1	New
Majority			8,447	18.5	2.0
Turnout			45,462	68.5	3.1
	Labour hold		Swing	1.0

Elections in the 2000s

2005 general election: Edinburgh South West[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alistair Darling	17,476	39.8	-4.6
	Conservative	Gordon Buchan	10,234	23.3	-3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Clark	9,252	21.1	+9.4
	SNP	Nick Elliott-Cannon	4,654	10.6	-2.8
	Scottish Green	John Blair-Fish	1,520	3.5	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Pat Smith	585	1.3	-1.0
	UKIP	William Boys	205	0.5	+0.3
Majority			7,242	16.5	N/A
Turnout			43,926	65.4	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh

Notes and references

1. Fifth Periodical Review, Boundary Commission for Scotland Archived 21 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
2. "UK Parliamentary General Election - 12 December 2019". The City of Edinburgh Council. The City of Edinburgh Council. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
3. "Edinburgh South West parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
6. Council, The City of Edinburgh. "UK Parliamentary election results 2015 | The City of Edinburgh Council". www.edinburgh.gov.uk.
7. "SNP pin election hopes on high profile Yes campaigners". HeraldScotland.
8. Stephen, Phyllis (22 November 2018). "Ricky Demarco leads the charge against demolition of St John's". The Edinburgh Reporter.
9. "Gordon Lindhurst selected for Edinburgh South West". Edinburgh.
10. https://twitter.comSighthillGorgie%5B%5D
11. http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#Scotland
12. "UK Polling Report". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
13. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
14. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)